I know these aren't terribly popular for various reasons. I got one a while back before I knew anything about honing, and got ok edges--comfortable, but not terribly keen. After spending the last few months honing on film and using the balsa method, I decided to pull out the ILR and see what I could do with it.
The razor was my Rugby, an old Solingen blade with lots of pitting and an edge that likes to chip out at the toe. I reset the bevel with tape, starting on 9 micron film and honed it to 3 micron film. Then I went to the ILR.
Previous attempts I had followed the conventional wisdom: hone under running water until it sticks, strop on canvas and hone again under a trickle until it sticks again, and done. This time I honed with water sprayed on the stone, quite a few laps until I could see a hazy scratch pattern on the whole bevel. Then I added a touch of dish soap and continued with x-strokes, alternating between heel and toe leading. I added water until the soap was entirely diluted and finished with as light a touch as I could.
Inspecting the edge under magnification revealed some deeper scratches at a fairly uniform distribution in addition to the finer haze. Because of the direction, I know they were from the stone and not the films. Looking at the stone you can see some "sparklies" that I suspect are responsible for those scratches.
After honing, it treetopped but wouldn't pass HHT. After 50 laps on clean leather, it would HHT uniformly and quietly. The shave was quite nice. No bite and very close after my usual 3 passes. Not as sharp as a method edge, of course, but a little sharper than I've managed to get off 1 micron film and far less harsh than a .3 micron film edge over paper.
The sparklies seem more prominent after lapping and especially after honing. I wonder if, like an ark, these should be knocked down with a knife or a chisel prior to putting a razor on it. The photo below is from after this last honing session.
Anyway, definitely not an everyday finisher in my opinion, but more capable than I realized.
Would love to hear others' experiences. At the moment this is the only natural stone I own, so my frame of reference is limited.
The razor was my Rugby, an old Solingen blade with lots of pitting and an edge that likes to chip out at the toe. I reset the bevel with tape, starting on 9 micron film and honed it to 3 micron film. Then I went to the ILR.
Previous attempts I had followed the conventional wisdom: hone under running water until it sticks, strop on canvas and hone again under a trickle until it sticks again, and done. This time I honed with water sprayed on the stone, quite a few laps until I could see a hazy scratch pattern on the whole bevel. Then I added a touch of dish soap and continued with x-strokes, alternating between heel and toe leading. I added water until the soap was entirely diluted and finished with as light a touch as I could.
Inspecting the edge under magnification revealed some deeper scratches at a fairly uniform distribution in addition to the finer haze. Because of the direction, I know they were from the stone and not the films. Looking at the stone you can see some "sparklies" that I suspect are responsible for those scratches.
After honing, it treetopped but wouldn't pass HHT. After 50 laps on clean leather, it would HHT uniformly and quietly. The shave was quite nice. No bite and very close after my usual 3 passes. Not as sharp as a method edge, of course, but a little sharper than I've managed to get off 1 micron film and far less harsh than a .3 micron film edge over paper.
The sparklies seem more prominent after lapping and especially after honing. I wonder if, like an ark, these should be knocked down with a knife or a chisel prior to putting a razor on it. The photo below is from after this last honing session.
Anyway, definitely not an everyday finisher in my opinion, but more capable than I realized.
Would love to hear others' experiences. At the moment this is the only natural stone I own, so my frame of reference is limited.